Darrell Issa to Eric Holder: “You own Fast and Furious”

A key House Republican characterized Operation Fast and Furious as the full responsibility of Attorney General Eric Holder, in shooting back at the embattled Justice Department chief’s claim he told the truth to Congress about his knowledge of the botched gun-tracking program.

“Whether you realize yet or not, you own Fast and Furious,” Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, wrote to Holder in a letter released today. “It is your responsibility.”

Issa wants Holder to return to Congress to give sworn testimony because he is frustrated with what he called “a roving set of ever-changing explanations to justify [the Justice Department’s] involvement in this reckless and deadly program.” Issa, whose committee is investigating Fast and Furious, has already said he plans to subpoena Holder and top Justice Department officials to come back to Capitol Hill to tell lawmakers what they knew about the operation and when they found out.

Fast and Furious, a joint operation run from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives office in Phoenix, sought to let illegally bought guns “walk” across the border so agents could trace the weapons to Mexican drug cartel kingpins. Of 1,400 guns agents lost track of, two were found at the scene of the December murder of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry.

The oversight chairman was responding to a letter on Friday in which Holder defended telling Congress under oath in May he found out about Fast and Furious a few weeks earlier. It was his first public defense after the release of memos that were sent to him in July 2010 describing the operation by name. Some Republicans, including Texas Reps. Ted Poe and Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, have called for a special counsel to look into whether Holder misled Congress.

“Your lack of trustworthiness while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility,” Issa wrote. “The time for deflecting blame and obstructing our investigation is over.”

Attorney General Eric Holder (AP)

Holder said Friday his office receives hundreds of memos, and they are only passed on to him if the staffers who read them deem it necessary. “No issues regarding Fast and Furious were brought to my attention because the information presented in the reports did not suggest a problem,” Holder wrote.

The attorney general added that he could not “sit idly by” as Issa and other Republicans accused law enforcement officials of being accessories to murder. Issa has referred to Fast and Furious as a “felony stupid program.”

Calling Holder’s letter to Congress “deeply disappointing,” Issa said it “did little but obfuscate, shift blame, berate, and attempt to change the topic away from the Department’s responsibility in the creation, implementation, and authorization of this reckless program.”

Issa accused Justice Department officials of “lying to Congress ever since the inquiry into Fast and Furious began.” He said a claim made by a top department official in February that ATF makes every effort to interdict weapons purchased illegally turned out to be “a flat-out lie.”

Holder also lied when he said in early September that senior Justice Department officials didn’t know about the operation, Issa charged. Lanny Breuer and Gary Grindler, two top Justice Department officials, knew a “simply astounding” amount of detail about the operation, learning about it as early as March 2010.

Tracy Schmaler, a Justice Department spokeswoman, described Issa’s allegations as “baseless, no matter how many times they are repeated.” Holder took the tactics used in Fast and Furious seriously from the start, Schmaler said, “which is why the first steps he took were to ask the Inspector General to investigate the matter and to ensure agents and prosecutors knew such conduct violated Department of Justice policy and would not be tolerated.”

The department will continue cooperating with congressional investigators, Schmaler added.

“In the meantime, what the American people deserve is less partisan showboating and more responsible solutions to stopping gun violence on the Southwest Border,” she said.

ATF’s then-Acting Director, Kenneth Melson, told congressional investigators over the summer his stomach was “in knots” after he learned the details of the operation. Melson has since left his post and taken a new advisory position in the department. Phoenix U.S. Attorney Dennis Burke also resigned. The new ATF acting director, B. Todd Jones, has reshuffled the agency by reassigning 11 top officials.

If Obama administration officials familiar with the operation didn’t alert Holder and his staffers didn’t bring the memos to his attention, Issa said, “at best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility into serious doubt.”